On Thursday, December 15, many CMR members met for dinner and a Dirty Santa gift swap, with Kevin as the MC.  It was a great time and everyone had a lot of fun, with many heard saying that this was the best holiday dinner in years.  

Conversations were overheard...

 

A North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) conductor uniform cuff button is seen below, circa unknown, but probably dating to before the 1870s.  The North Carolina Railroad Company was incorporated in 1849 and subsequently built a cross-state railroad that presently extends 317 miles, from Charlotte in the southern Piedmont to Morehead City on the Atlantic coast.  It is an historic property that brought progress to what was largely an isolated agrarian economy and continues to serve business by leasing the line to Norfolk Southern Railway and by serving passengers through the use of the railroad with ten passenger trains a day, operated by both the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Amtrak.  Items from the NCRR are rarely seen.  

 

 

Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railway (CF&YV) cuff and jacket buttons are seen below, circa 1880's-1890's.  This railroad was chartered in 1879 and ran from Mt. Airy NC to Wilmington NC, passing through Greensboro.  After financial difficulties caused the aquisition of the southern half of the line by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and the northern segment by the Southern Railway, the latter portion became the Southern Railway's subsidiary, the Atlantic & Yadkin Railway (A&Y).  The A&Y was headquartered in Greensboro, had Jefferson Pilot Insurance Company CEO Julian Price as its president and was fully absorbed into Southern Railway in 1950.  Parts of the CF&YV still exist under the ownership of other railroads, but much of the Greensboro portion has been converted to a recreational trail.  Prior to the aquisition of these buttons, our historical society had only seen CF&YV paper ephemera as collectibles.  

The Greensboro Chapter of the NRHS has also recently acquired a pass from the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) dated from 1868.  Passes were issued by a railroad for free travel to employees, important people and to employees of other railroads.  This one was issued to a ticket agent on the Western & Atlantic Railroad (W&A RR) in Georgia by the NCRR.  The W&A RR was made famous in 1862 when Civil War Union raiders stole a W&A RR locomotive named the "General" and were then chased by Confederate troops in another train pulled by a locomotive named the "Texas."  Ultimately, the Union men were caught and hanged and both locomotives are on display in Georgia. 

CMR was proud to again partner with the Carolinas RPM to bring a fantastic Railway Prototype Modelers meet to our area on Friday September 30 and Saturday October 1 2022 in High Point NC.  

Carolina Model Railroaders also held an operations session on our layout for visitors from the modelers' meet and we'd like to thank those that braved the storm that evening to come out and spend time with us.  Below are photos from that session.  

 

Covid interrupted and slowed the progress, but a substantial amount of work has been completed on our new layout, thanks to the efforts of a dedicated team of club members.   

The original DC layout with HO, N and HOn3 scale trackage was constructed the 1970's in one of the former waiting rooms at the ex-Southern Railway train station adjacent to our current location in the former Railway Express Agency building.  When the station was renovated beginning in 2001, the club moved to a former knitting mill in northeast Greensboro and then to our current location in October 2003.  It and the current layout have been DCC since then, with electronics by Digitrax. In 2019, the 2003 layout was dismantled and a new adventure was begun. 

Below is the track plan for the HO portion of our new layout depicting the Piedmont, Sandhills and western North Carolina.  

The HO layout has 1200 feet of code 83 track, 42 yard switches, five rivers and 174 structures, as of December 2022.

 

Below is the N scale freelanced (not meant to represent any specific area) layout. 

 

Seen above is the entire length of the layout room in the former Greensboro Railway Express Agency building, with the HO portion of the layout in the foreground and the N scale portion in the far distance. 

Above is seen the new HO track alignment, near the planned site of the Greensboro passenger station, just      completed in September 2022. 

The N scale layout is seen above.  

One of two mines and backdrop on the N scale layout (above).  

Amtrak is about to head out to the big city on the HO layout. 

Co-Op grain elevator on the N scale layout is seen above. 

Another new HO bridge spans the mainline near Sanford. 

Southern Railway scene on the N scale (above)

Chuffing through downtown (above) on the HO

N&W troop train on the HO layout passing Siler City depot. 

On our HO layout, the NCDOT goes to all NC towns.

No conductors standing on the back of cabooses any longer except on the CMR.  

 

Scrapyard and other industry in Hickory area (above) on the HO.

 

The HO model in the two photos below is of Evonik Stockhausen Chemical in Greensboro.  A fixture in Greensboro for years, it is the largest manufacturer in the world of a super-absorbent polymer that is used in diapers and similar products, producing over 100,000 metric tons a year. 

 

Heavy freight passing the HO grain elevators

 N&W local freight on the N scale (above)

 

BCR M630 and SD40-2's ease through HO industrial complex early one morning.                                                                                

Switching the HO layout with a BN GP-15 one afternoon (above)

At Pomona Yard (above). 

The people living in these houses are all railfans. 

 

It's 1965 and a Southern Railway freight is passin' through with four F units in charge. 

US Army Transportation Corps short HO train pulled by 65-ton Whitcomb (above)

It's a busy day on the back dock at the HO scale Bartlett Milling.  

One of two mines on the N scale layout  

The HO Greensboro Pomona Yard, with the Colonial Pipeline petroleum tank farm in the background. The actual Pomona Yard has a capacity of over 800 freight cars. Colonial's 600-acre Greensboro complex is the largest on their 5500 mile system, with pipeline branches to other cities in the eastern US that daily deliver 3 million barrels of 86 types of petroleum products.  

The Norfolk Southern HO Greensboro intermodal yard is beginning to take shape (above). 

A river takes shape on the N scale layout (above left); N scale fiddle yard (above middle) and the spectacular HO Perdue elevator from Candor NC (above right)     

The bridge crew just finished up on two new HO structures.

Another view of the HO layout (above) and the N scale layout in the distance

A Southern Pacific Daylight GS-4 steam locomotive is in command of a passenger train on the N scale (above)

Other scenes from around the HO layout below -   

 

 

 

Digitrax power station for the N scale layout  

Scenes around the busy Stockhausen facility (above and below)